Sojitz Establishes “Meat One,” a Marketing Company for Livestock Products

Sojitz Foods Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuzuru Kamioka; “Sojitz Foods”), a fully owned subsidiary of Sojitz Corporation, has signed a joint venture agreement to establish a marketing company, Meat One Corporation (“Meat One”), with companies all along the meat value chain - from raw materials procurement to processing and distribution - in order to reliably and safely offer quality processed meat products at competitive prices to consumers in Japan and around the world.

The partners on this venture –top-rated meat processors with long business histories –now find themselves facing an increasingly harsh business climate, fearing Japan’s domestic food market growth has reached its limit due to the country’s population ceiling, rising purchasing power within China and other countries in Asia, and incidents such as the Japanese government placing safeguards on frozen beef imports from the U.S.. Additionally, small and medium sized enterprises in the industry struggle with succession difficulties, a serious social problem for Japan today.

Meat One will actively work to solve these problems facing the industry, consolidating material procurement, processing, sales, and logistics expertise held by shareholder companies to bring safe, reliable processed meat products to the Japanese dinner table at more competitive prices. The venture will be open for talks with new prospective shareholders in order to further refine Meat One’s functions.

Meat One aims to move beyond Japan in the future, expanding to other countries such as those in the rapidly growing ASEAN region. Contributing to the spread of foodstuffs overseas which meet Japanese standards of quality, Meat One will help to showcase Japan’s craftsmanship skills abroad.